Long Peace Street with Jonathan Chatwin (HoH Podcast – Ep, 80)

Jonathan Chatwin is a writer from Birmingham, England. He holds a PhD in English Literature, and writes widely on culture and history, with a particular focus on China. He is the author of Anywhere Out of the World, a literary biography of Bruce Chatwin acclaimed as the ‘best account yet of the origins of Chatwin’s restless mania’. His forthcoming travelogue Long Peace Street: A walk in modern China will be published by Manchester University Press in July.

You can hear him speak about the book at the following UPCOMING EVENTS:
July 4th 2019: 'Borders and Crossings' Conference - University of Leicester
July 25th 2019: Hong Kong Royal Geographical Society
August 1st 2019: Shanghai FCC
August 3rd 2019: Literary Shanghai
August 9th 2019: Beijing Bookworm – In Conversation with Jeremiah Jenne

‘Filled with insights, observations and anecdotes, Chatwin brings to life the past – and present – of one of the world’s great cities in an account that is as thoughtful as it is informative.'
Peter Frankopan, Professor of Global History at Oxford University and author of The Silk Roads.

Twitter: @jmchatwin

Read the Book:

 Long Peace Street: A walk in modern China 

Some Highlights:
Walking as a form of observation
Architecture of Beijing
Waiguoren and being an outside observer
Validity of experience in Travel Writing
70 Years since Communist Party Rule Began
30 Years since Tienanmen Square
"There is not just one city"
Does a surplus of history cultivate indifference towards it?
Zhongnanhai from Mao to Xi
Beijing as a city of revolt and protest
Chang'an Jie - Long Peace Street

Suggestions:
Jonathan: Jia Zhangke - particularly the recent Ash is Purest White, Mountains May Depart and A Touch of Sin.

Steven: Akashic Noir Series

Further Reading Suggestions from Jonathan:
Mao’s New World: Political Culture in the Early People’s Republic - Chang-Tai Hung

Chang’an Avenue and the Modernization of Chinese Architecture - Shuishan Yu

The Search for a Vanishing Beijing - M.A. Aldrich

The Last Days of Old Beijing - Michael Meyer

Correction: In the May 4th protests of 1919 control of Shandong was transferred from Germany to Japan, rather than the other way around.